Friday, November 12, 2010

A Rare Bird and a Giveaway

The first dusting of snow arrived last week and as I was gazing out at the falling flakes through my back window I spied a rare feathered friend in the fields behind our house. See this brown speck in the very center of this photo?

It's a male ring-necked pheasant! I had seen one of these beautiful game birds in our parts 15 or more years ago. We had a male that would jump onto our lawn tractor and flap his wings at us with vigor, making his distinctive cry. I'm not sure if he was try to ward us off his territory or was just hopped up on mating hormones, but we could get quite close to him. Not so with the present pheasant, who was very wary and kept stock still when I would lift my window curtain to peep out at him. He came within 50 yards of the house, but never came closer, perhaps because of our dog's scent.

What a handsome bird! Well, fear not, we did not bag him and eat him, though I haven't seen him again and hope he is just roosting in another field down the road and not residing in some coyote's stomach.

Since this is a food blog, rather than a birdwatching blog, I will turn to my giveaway. As part of General Mills MyBlogSpark program, I received a Live Gluten Freely prize pack containing all the gluten-free products you see below. I am delighted that I am also able to offer one of my U.S. readers the chance to receive a Live Gluten Freely prize pack as well.

To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment below letting me know what gluten-free product or food you are most thankful for by November 20, 2010. That'll get me in the Thanksgiving spirit! I will pick a randomly generated winner from the available submissions after the deadline.

I used a box of my Betty Crocker GF Brownie mix to make these terribly tasty Mexican Brownies. They have a bottom crust of crushed Cinnamon Chex cereal mixed with melted butter and brown sugar and were polished off rapidly by my hubbie and daughter and two of her sleepover pals. Okay, I had one too. Alright, two brownies. You can check out the recipe here at the Live Glutenly Free website that General Mills has developed to assist consumers with recipes, and GF health and lifestyle information.

10 comments:

The GF brownies by General Mills are excellent! I have also finally found some GF bread that tastes like whole grain bread - Udi's bread. A local trattoria is now serving a GF pizza. Three GF items for which I am thankful!

I'm a new reader of your blog and thoroughly approve of your adding bird-watching comments at any time!! My cockatiel approves as well. On the gluten-free front I'll say that I'm grateful that so many of the Chex cereals are gluten-free. I'm new to actually living a gluten-free lifestyle and appreciate in a whole new way those companies that recognize how a little change in their product can make a big change in an individual's life.

This has been a very busy season with very little time for cooking, so I am most thankful for gluten-free brown rice tortillas by Food for Life. I'm wrapping everything these days...eggs, deli slices, leftover salads. Wrap and go! Interestingly, when the fillings change, I don't get tired of them. I'm definitely ready to simmer a pot of savory soup now that the temperatures are dipping, but I don't think it will work well in my wrap!

I just found out after 24 years that I have celiac's. I am such a lover of pasta and wheat and grain products but didn't realize how horrible they were making me. I searched Gluten Free blogs and your's popped up. You are the light at the end of a dark tunnel!! Thank you so much!!! As far as gluten free products, I love the qunioa pasta and using Almond Flour for baking. I love that I walk into Wholefoods and find a gluten free section with almost anything. Udi's gluten free bread is also out of the this world!!! P.s. I am very jealous of your birdwatching!! We don't get much of that here in nyc...Please keep blogging as you really are helping me keep some sanity in my life!!

We used to see ring neck pheasants all the time when I was younger, but it's been years since we've caught glimpse of one. How neat that you were able to catch it on film!

I'm thankful for all the time I get to spend with my family this holiday season. As for something GF related, I'm thankful that my family is willing to change our traditional meal around a little so that I can eat everything too!

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This blog is an original work of creative expression by Rachel Jagareski. All photos, text, and original recipes herein are copyrighted by the author/artist Rachel Jagareski (c) 2007-2015. All rights are reserved by the author. Please contact me for permission to republish or broadcast any material beyond your own personal use. Thank you.